Blood Road Page #8

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"You've spoken to me

through your songs,

"your letters and the way

you lived your life.

"You've given me

the gift of life,

"and the tools to live mine

"with compassion,

joy and curiosity.

"I know now that this,

"this is not an ending,

but a beginning,

"the beginning

of our relationship.

"I miss you, Dad...

"but now I know

you'll always be with me.

Love, Rebecca."

(SNIFFLES)

RUSCH:
I felt relieved.

I felt...

I felt close to him

for the first time in my life.

I felt like he was really there.

And so I read him...

I read him my letter,

and spoke to him,

and uttered the words "Dad"

for the first time in my life.

(SNIFFLES)

And it felt good to say,

felt good to say, "Hi, Dad."

(SNIFFLES)

RUSCH:
So I left my letter in there,

and I left his MIA bracelet

that my mom had given me,

because he's not missing

for me anymore.

I finally found him.

NGUYEN:
(IN VIETNAMESE)

I didn't see a strong athlete,

but a daughter

coming back to her father.

Just like she was saying,

"Dad, are you seeing me?

It's me."

Come on in, you guys.

AIRH (IN LAO) When I took

Rebecca to her father,

where the plane crashed,

I guess from her expressions,

she felt both sad and happy.

And then he showed

Rebecca the slide path

that the plane had taken

as it tumbled down the hill

to its eventual resting spot.

RUSCH:
Oh, yeah, I see.

There's a huge trench,

goes as far as I can see,

just dug down

where the plane slid.

Yeah.

Oh, it goes a long way.

That made it real,

and even more magical,

because, you know that...

You know, that's the place.

No way.

And look what he just found,

he just found

a couple of things...

Just...

What?

Yeah, he just picked them up.

I bet all up and down here

there's stuff.

MARTIN:
The impact site

was up the hill a ways,

and the plane had slid down

toward the tree,

and it had left

a pretty good scar

on the land

that was still there.

Wow.

Yeah, heh.

(CHUCKLES,

MUTTERS INDISTINCTLY)

Yeah.

AIRH (IN LAO) My feelings towards

the event that I met Rebecca,

I felt sorry for her.

I would go out

and find my father too,

if it was my father.

She came here

because she is a good daughter.

(RUSCH GASPS)

Laos or other nationality,

we are all human.

We have feelings.

I'm so happy

that we could help her.

I'm glad we came here.

MARTIN:
Absolutely.

As long as I am alive,

I will tell my children

not to cut down that tree.

I'm gonna go back to the tree.

Okay.

NGUYEN:
(IN VIETNAMESE)

Since Rebecca started

the journey back

to where her father died,

she was very persistent

and eager

to get there immediately.

Day after day, she became

more and more impatient.

She yearned for it.

And I believe

it was the biggest hope,

the cause for which

she did this trip.

It was to find the love

that she had not been granted

since her childhood.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

RUSCH:
Visiting him and

visiting the site,

it doesn't feel like

mourning of a death.

It feels like kind of a rebirth

of him, in a way.

I'm finding out who this man was

that I never asked

the questions about

when I was younger.

But now that

that floodgate is open,

all that information,

all those songs,

those are things that,

as soon as I get home,

I'm gonna be digging into

with a hunger.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(BEEPING)

Yay!

We have a welcoming party!

(PEOPLE CHATTERING

INDISTINCTLY)

So much has happened

in just a couple weeks here,

and now the mood

and the motivation

has certainly shifted.

And Ho Chi Minh City

is within

striking distance, really.

Even though my body

is starting to break down,

and I'm feeling the effects

of the trail, but we're close.

This seems so long ago

right here, heh.

Now we're down here,

and we're already looking

at the finish line.

(HORN HONKS)

RUSCH:
For the rest of the ride

through Cambodia and Vietnam,

it was like a blur.

A weight had been lifted,

and I felt free and happy.

I didn't expect

to feel that way.

NGUYEN:
(IN VIETNAMESE)

After she saw bomb craters,

the local people's

hard and poor lives

along the Ho Chi Minh Trail,

I realized that she became

more and more open-hearted.

It felt to me that

she had changed significantly.

RUSCH:
All along the trail,

we talked about the war

and there wasn't ever

a discussion

of blame or a political agenda

or anything.

We both shared

the same sentiment

that it was unfortunate

that so many people died

for something

that not everybody understood,

and I still don't

totally understand.

NGUYEN:
(IN VIETNAMESE) After a very

long journey on Ho Chi Minh Trail,

seeing the harshness of the war

with my two eyes,

my opinion about war

became clearer.

I understand the biggest pain

of humanity is war.

RUSCH:
Ultimately, I go back again

to the letters that my dad wrote

about war, explaining

how difficult it was

to drop bombs on people,

and how he didn't necessarily

understand why.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

RUSCH:
After riding every

single day for nearly a month

and covering

more than 1200 miles,

we were so relieved

to reach the finish.

(HORN HONKS)

You could really tell that

Huyen was excited to be home.

NGUYEN:
(IN VIETNAMESE)

I felt cheerful and happy.

Through the last day

of the journey,

I could never have imagined

that I could be so strong.

RUSCH:
We rolled into the city center,

and there was a small patch

of green grass,

amongst all the cement

and the tall buildings,

and it was the grounds

of the Independence Palace.

This is the place where

two years after

the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam,

the North overtook the South,

ending the war

and joining the country

under one communist government.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

The whole crew

was there to greet us...

Greg, Jason, Don,

Huyen's family

and even my sister, Sharon.

Ah!

RUSCH:
Huyen's kids ran up to her.

They really couldn't

contain their excitement.

They haven't seen

their mom in weeks.

This trip opened my eyes

to really hold on tighter

to the people

that are still here with me,

before it's too late,

before they're gone too.

RUSCH:
I'm so glad

you're here, heh, heh.

I'm so glad you're here.

MARTIN:
Good job.

We did it, thank you.

MARTIN:
The physical

objective was to ride

the whole thing,

and she did that.

I think, emotionally,

it's probably been

more rewarding

than she had hoped for.

NGUYEN:
(IN VIETNAMESE) I think I'm

lucky to see such a woman in my life.

Not knowing

when we would meet again,

I feel so sad, that I had

to say goodbye to a sister,

a friend

who had shared difficulties

side by side with me.

Mr. Don,

thank you for everything.

Oh, what a great trip.

On my motorcycle, I can't say

I've ever done what they did.

Tremendous experience for me.

Probably one of the best things

I've ever done in my life.

(IN VIETNAMESE) I realized the war

was over and the war is still there.

When Rebecca found her father,

it was a source

of enormous happiness to her.

It was the feeling, I think.

That is

the healing pains of war.

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